ABSTRACT An organization's learning practices, outside‐in (aggregate) and inside‐out (endogenous), give insights into its innovation. The insights require looking at the external sources used to develop technological capabilities. When external sources use innovations in the network to address technological complexity, this drives technology development; open innovation captures the extent to which external sources leverage those innovations. This study selects appropriate perspectives to develop a theoretical framework that helps understand how organizations connect learning practices, innovation, external sources, and technology development. The perspectives are part of management tools. This study selects perspectives on knowledge management and morphogenesis; morphogenesis comprises structural, cultural, and interactional aspects. Synthesizing the theoretical framework requires cases that provide appropriate analytical and heuristic; this study selected significant cases from the Indian pharmaceutical industry. The findings provide crucial insights into the complementarity/incompatibility between learning practices and innovation, identifying eight incompatibilities in endogenous practice and two in aggregate practice that hinder learning practices throughout the lifecycle. In developing economies, one practice is stronger; it manifests as organizational rather than innovation performance. This study attributes it to a lack of knowledge codification and linkages; more insights from cases that attempted these.
Lakshminarayana Kompella (Wed,) studied this question.